The curious case of Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar's Tweets, which, for me, are more revealing for what they DON'T say

Above, the cover of Broward County Commission candidate Marty Kiar's recent four-page direct mail to NW Broward County voters. If you think that a mailing with this cover would be light on ideas or issues, esp. those involving the County Commission, the group he wants to join, you'd be right. But then have you read his tweets? 

Over the past nine months, for the most part, if you didn't know any better, you'd never even guess that  Kiar lived in Broward County, because whether it's the issue of ethics and scruples or rather the obvious lack of them at times on the County and municipal level here by elected officials and well-paid administrators and employees, the overwhelming evidence that red-light cameras in Broward are being used primarily as revenue generators for cities instead of for the public safety purposes elected officials say they are when installing them, the County's curious garbage contract monopoly, Broward County Commissioners fighting term-limits overwhelmingly voted in as law by Broward citizens, et al, Kiar never mentions important public policy matters that were actually being publicly discussed and voted upon in THIS county -and what he thinks about them. But then again, he is only 34-years old.

I find it very troubling that considering all the advantages that he enjoys, he's SO MUCH of a blank slate instead of being a more fully-formed and informed citizen. I seriously hope that voters living in District 8 will see more civic-minded candidates entering the race in the next four weeks, people who are NOT as tied-in to the Status Quo society in this county as Kiar is, so they can have at least one candidate to consider who will not only know the facts and know their own mind, but NOT hedge what they publicly says now because of being SO CONCERNED about election campaigns in the future, as Kiar seems to be. April 22, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Did you see Marty Kiar's tweet about why FL Fair Districts & the FL Democrats NEVER made public -and submitted- their Redistricting maps when they had the chance?
Actually, he never did.

Not once.

http://twitter.com/#!/repmartinkiar

On the other hand, Kiar, who, as I wrote the other day here, is running for the Broward County Comm. District 8 seat currently held by term-limited Ilene Lieberman, never neglected to tell us what he perceived to be very important insider info on all sorts of matters.


Things like how many miles he ran that day in preparation for running in a marathon, and how many doors he knocked on -he actually did it during Dolphins home loss to Tebow-led Broncos and a later home win against Buffalo- mentioned that he was at various state Redistricting meetings around the state and, even -wait for it- the sex of his unborn child, the latter being a fact that nobody outside of his family and immediate circle of friends could possibly care about... and TMI.


On October 19th of last year he even tweeted a link to an Orlando Sentinel editorial about two companion bills dealing with the public's right to speak to elected officials at public meetings that he and Sen. Joe Negron of Stuart offered, Senate Bill 206 and HB 355. 
Bills that I and almost everyone reading this blog would wholeheartedly agree with, in my case, because of what I and my friends and other HB residents have had to deal with for years at Hallandale Beach City Hall.
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=47498


Let citizens be heard by their government
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-10-20/news/os-ed-public-meeting-speakers-102011-20111019_1_citizens-appeals-bodies


Unfortunately, both bills died the first week of March. 
How come he never tweeted about that?



NEGRON BILL GUARANTEEING RIGHT TO SPEAK AT PUBLIC MEETINGS DIES IN HOUSE
www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/mar/13/bill-guaranteeing-right-to-speak-at-public-dies/


(Residency-challenged Rep. Frank Artiles of House 119 voted against it on 2/3/12 in the Rulemaking & Regulation Subcommittee, but it still passed 12-3.)



Similarly, he tweets that he ran the Disney Marathon but, incredulously, doesn't give his time.
Really.


As someone with a sister who runs in a lot of marathons across the country, I can say with little chance of being wrong that Marty Kiar may be the first person in the history of Twitter -at least in South Florida- to run a marathon, mention it in a tweet but NOT give his time, even if it isn't a PR.

He mentions the sex of his soon-too-be second child but the subject of Democratic-drawn maps that conformed to the two Constitutional Amendments that were overwhelmingly approved by Florida voters, something that was in the news about every day for a couple of months, he tweets nothing about?
Yes.

That's very curious when you consider that for better than a year, we were all told over-and-over by the members of the Florida news media that the people running Fair Districts Florida wanted us to know that they were really looking out for all our best interests after we came thru and gave them the big election victories, but on the other hand, they also wanted us to know that the Florida GOP, on the other hand, well, you know them.

They'll do nothing but try to obfuscate and prevent the people of this state from ever seeing competitive districts drawn for a change so that real ideas and issues might matter more than PAC contributions or a candidates race, ethnicity or religion.
You know the Florida GOP, they said with a sly wink, they'll keep up the long and treasured Sunshine State tradition of pols choosing their districts, rather than have voters choose them, the way it was always explained in high school Social Studies books once upon a time.

Yet what did THEY do?

So now that it's the first week of May and state legislative elections with the Republican-drawn court-approved maps will be held in six months, how come Fair Districts Florida and the Florida Democratic Party STILL haven't explained to the public why they NEVER officially submitted maps to the Florida Senate Redistricting Comm.?

Why?

And better yet, why doesn't the Mainstream News Media in this state, the nation's fourth-largest I remind you, care a whit about that, and never mention that salient fact in their stories about the court siding with the Florida GOP and what those new maps mean?

Not just real competition in some cases, but incumbents running against one another, always a good thing?

It's like they all have a bad case of situational amnesia, and are feigning not knowing what I and many of you reading this already know.

It's galling, just like Kiar's precious tweets.

Yes, it's not only a case of late with the Florida Democratic Party being the dog that doesn't hunt, but when you toss in the incurious state news media to the mix, it's a case of the watchdog that never barks.

Which would make it a lapdog, not a bulldog.


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Educating Martin Kiar
http://smashedfrog.blogspot.com/2009/06/educating-martin-kiar.html 

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? The silence on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away

Above, the middle two pages of the Martin Kiar for County Commission direct mail sent out recently that includes petition forms to get him on the ballot. In Hallandale Beach, after the city had a policy forever of accepting  petitions in lieu of a nominal fee for city candidates, the City Clerk's office has suddenly said that it no longer could accept them because there's no basis for them under current law. April 24, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? 
The silence from him on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away.


It's now officially less than 27 weeks until Election Day 2012.


In the six months since Florida state House member Martin "Marty" Kiar first publicly announced that he was going to run for term-limited Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman's District 1 seat in November, AFTER the Florida Senate District he had his heart set on running for was redrawn by the state legislature in a way that would've proved particularly nettlesome for him by including much more of Palm Beach County, as an interested bystander who can't vote for or against him, I've waited patiently for Kiar to fully explain something pretty fundamental to the people of Broward County.


Waited patiently... and then some.
Just like many of you reading this post.


But now that it's less than 27 weeks and with no sign that he is going to do the right thing on his own, I feel that I need to ask this publicly?
Just when-oh-when is Kiar going to level with everyone in the area and fully explain to the public's satisfaction at a press conference -with serious reporters who show-up fully-prepared like Michael Putney- how the particular Davie precinct he lives in came to be the only one in the city carved-out in such a curious way that he's able to run for Lieberman's seat?


Not answered via a Tweet or via a publicist's press release, and not answered via a private telephone conversation with Broward Democratic Party head Mitch Caesar or to one of Kiar's 
supporters or godfathers in the community who think he's a swell guy, and then relayed to the public and news media.
Not at a press avail, but a real live press conference.


At a press conference when questions are asked and logical and reasonable answers are expected in response, without some intermediary choosing which questions get asked.


It's hardly an encouraging sign of getting to the entire truth of the matter -with all the facts revealed- much less, a sign of responsible enterprise journalism, that as of today, May 2nd, the Miami Herald has yet to even mention in print anything at all about Kiar actually going to the Broward County Government Center and signing-in to talk to Comm. Lieberman about redistricting.


Given that sad fact, you'll hardly be surprised when I tell you that the Herald has also yet to print anything at all about Kiar's lone Davie precinct being placed in County Commission District 1 at the County Commission's December 13th meeting.
Really.


Even more embarrassing for the Herald, despite the upcoming election and the matters coming up before the Broward Commission so far this year, here we are one-third of the way thru the year and there has NOT been a single article penned by an actual Herald reporter mentioning either Kiar or Lieberman.


The one thing that has appeared in print this year in the Herald about the curious Marty Kiar map was one of those shared pieces by Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and that was mostly about former Commissioner Ken Keechl running from another District, and didn't even appear until January 19th, five long weeks after the December 13th meeting that decided the matter.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/19/2598173/suddenly-defeated-broward-commissioner.html


Why was the Herald completely sleeping on this subject of Broward redistricting, just like they completely took a siesta on Lieberman's curious involvement with the stacked Broward County Courthouse Task Force a few years ago, which I wrote about here frequently?


You'll recall that the Herald's 'reporting' at the time, as such, consisted of small and insignificant semi-articles that were exactly the sort of one-sided, pro-new Courthouse pieces that the Broward legal community, esp. the judges, desperately wanted to see, with zero serious discussion of the costs and justification, much less, the issue of the County Commission going directly around the back of Broward taxpayers to push it thru.
Try to find those sycophantic Herald articles now!


You'll sooner find buried treasure at the former site of Pirate's World in Dania.


But then regular readers of the blog will recall that one of my many complaints in my December and January emails and subsequent blog posts here to Herald publisher David Landesberg and Executive Editor Rick Hirsh, concerned the Herald's feeble and non-existent coverage of Broward's redistricting, even while they were putting stories about Miami-Dade's on the front page.


It seems awfully curious to me that for an area that likes to claim that it's politically sophisticated and not a political or media backwater, this fundamental fact of how the Kiar map came into being out-of-nowhere has been allowed to go on and on, with Kiar just skating on this like he's Hans Brinker.


Especially considering how much Kiar's loyal supporters love to pepper blogs, both popular and obscure, with comments about how different he is from the other pols in this county, where a general culture of cronyism, corruption and short-cuts had already left its scars visible even before I returned to South Florida in late 2003.


To me, given who Kiar is and what he has done, and what we need in Broward now, he's the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kiar is going to be only 35 this year and has been in political office since he was 29, a few years out of law school.

What else has he done with himself?

Where else has he lived?

What has he experienced that's out of the norm?
Where's any evidence that he has anything other than the usual Broward Democratic  point-of-view on the proper role of government?


Based just on the publicly-available facts, Kiar's has been the very definition of a parochial and sheltered existence, the personable son of the town's mayor and city attorney.

It's all very well if small coal towns in rural Pennsylvania or Ohio or agricultural towns in Missouri find that sort of insularity comforting, maybe even heartening, but for Broward County to change and become what it needs to be in the 21st Century, in my opinion, it needs MORE serious responsible people who've actually lived elsewhere and seen different ways of doing things, and who have a personal track record of doing something tangible to make a positive difference, to boot.


To be honest, I don't personally consider signing your name onto legislation in Tallahasse that's practically written by the special interests, whether Democratic or Republican, and parrot talking points to be substantial, esp. when you never have to deal with the responsibilities of being in the majority and actually produce something, rather than playing the role of irritant.


To me, Kiar seems very... well, almost like a caricature of the typical Broward politician in the year 2012 -the familiar connections to the same powerful people and the same knee-jerk loyalties to the system that produced them.


(Except in his case, right now, Kiar has the burden of appearing to me to be both unformed and underwhelming, not unlike the worst and most troubling aspects of deceitful Hallandale Beach City Comm. Alexander Lewy, who not only lacks Kiar's personable friendliness, but who continues to mistake his own overweening ambition as a substitute for a personality, and who continues to tell people whatever he thinks they want to hear. Lewy's always playing the angles.)


I'm sorry, but I don't think that in the year 2012, given the stakes, you can't just vote for someone for political office because of their pleasing personality, otherwise, when tough and unpopular decisions need to be made, and they need to be persuasive with both their colleagues and the public in explaining why there's still more pain ahead, why would they suddenly show backbone and resolve when they've always used personality, not logic, to get things done?

In my opinion, however smart, clever or friendly Kiar may be, he doesn't really add anything

to the mix that is the Broward County Commission that's currently missing.
Another lawyer?
Really?


Broward County desperately needs elected officials and agency chiefs with vision who aren't  satisfied with the smug, status quo mediocrity we see all over the place here. 
It needs people who will perform genuine oversight over county spending and demand real accountability that doesn't give the benefit of the doubt to people (and their cronies) who always think that appropriating more money is the right answer.


Today's news tells the sad tale and why what I've said is true:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Auditor: Broward too loose with 'other people's money'

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

6:37 p.m. EDT, May 1, 2012

Broward County loosened controls on the public purse to the point that checks were paid with no documentation proving they should be, the county's independent auditor found.

The weak oversight of what one commissioner called OPM – Other People's Money – was so alarming, County Auditor Evan Lukic said he didn't wait to conclude his audit and immediately notified top county leaders.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501,0,3573544.story


Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501/10


From my perspective, it's hard to shake the notion that Kiar is part and parcel of the same get-along gang that operates between Broward Blvd., the beach, and the County Courthouse that got us all into this mess in the first place, a crew that is NOT at all trusted or respected by well-informed Broward residents precisely because of how often their interests have taken priority over the community's, with the new County Courthouse debacle being Exhibit A.


Where was Marty Kiar's voice on that issue? 
Or, more recently, the Bank Atlantic arena bailout for the Florida Panthers?

Fact: There is no public record of Kiar saying anything on behalf of Broward's beleaguered taxpayers on these two issues involving millions and millions of dollars.

And seriously, not to laugh out loud here while I write this, but when you think about all the genuine problems this county has to solve in transforming itself into a dynamic area with a well-balanced economy that's NOT so dependent on hospitality-related jobs, and then look at Kiar's campaign lit above, and see that "supporting worker rights" is the second thing he lists, wow, it just shows all over again his very poor judgement and how myopic his world view really is.

Preserving the county government  bureaucracy as it is, and the money-train pension system that Broward taxpayers are slowly being strangled by at the county and city level, is NOT what most Broward voters are in favor of.

There's nothing there about increased accountability, more transparency or better efficiency.

Tell me if this sounds at all familiar:

A party functionary who occasionally made faux claims to reform is elected, grows to love power so much that they are quickly blind to their own numerous flaws and become even more part of the dysfunctional system... Ann Murray.
'Nuff said.


Even with term limits, Broward County taxpayers don't need more young career-politicians-in-training getting burrowing into the system when they are 35, especially ones who've done so little of genuine significance and are NOT associated with any innovative ideas or ways of thinking.
More defenders of the status quo are precisely NOT what we need more of on S. Andrews Avenue.


-----

BrowardBeat

State Rep. Marty Kiar’s Future in Limbo Because of Redistricting

By Buddy Nevins

December 4, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-marty-kiars-future-in-limbo-because-of-redistricting/

BrowardBeat

Gerrymander! County Commission Carves Out A Seat For State Rep. Marty Kiar

By Buddy Nevins

December 16, 2011

http://www.browardbeat.com/marty-kiar-extremely-likely-to-run-for-county-commission/

Red Broward blog

Marty Kiar Met Ilene Lieberman Just Hours Before Redistricting Vote

December 19, 2011

http://redbroward.com/2011/12/19/marty-kiar-met-ilene-lieberman-just-hours-before-redistricting-vote/

*****Reader "Independent" has it right when they wrote in response:

"However, if you watch the meeting, Lieberman submitted right at the end a new map, which is posted, and with no public input. The hand drawn map was written specifically for Kiar, and it couldn’t pass cause it the district would be way too large. Then they worked out the Ritter-Lieberman-Jacobs Amendment. And then it appears she voted against her own agreed amendment."

BrowardBeat

Martin Kiar: I’m Running For Commission

By Buddy Nevins

January 3rd, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/martin-kiar-im-running-for-commission/

BrowardBeat

Lauderhill’s Kaplan Drops Out of County Commission Race  

By Buddy Nevins

January 5, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/lauderhills-kaplan-drops-out-of-county-commission-race/

Miami Herald 

Naked Politics blog

Rep. Martin Kiar will seek Broward County Commission seat

By Steve Bousquet of Tampa Bay Times

January 17, 2012

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/rep-kiar-will-seek-broward-commission-seat.html

The Florida Panthers hockey team's owners & mgmt. are about to get a cold dose of economic reality falling on their head -no taxpayer money for you!

In my opinion, the Florida Panthers hockey team's owners and management are about to get a cold dose of economic reality falling on their head -no taxpayer money for you!
And that lesson may well come as soon as the Broward County Commission meeting I'll be attending on Tuesday when agenda item #31 comes up.

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Florida Panthers asking Broward commissioners for $7.7 million loan
By Brittany Wallman
November 5, 2011 09:57 PM

The company that operates Broward County’s hockey arena in Sunrise and owns the Florida Panthers who play there wants a $7.7 million loan from the county to renovate the facility.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/11/florida_panthers_asking_browar.html

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I wrote to Broward County Comm. Sue Gunzburger -the presiding official here- and Comm. Chip LaMarca in June about the original $14.4 million request the Panthers asked for, and they responded quite reasonably that given the poor state of the economy in Broward County -and the sorts of belt-tightening that has taken place here, where salaries have been cut and job openings have gone unfilled- they will NOT support that request.

Given that, I can't imagine that Commissioners Gunzburger and LaMarca will change their minds for even for half that amount NOW, especially given that 99% of Broward County's resident taxpayers never utilize the BankAtlantic Center in a typical year, given what I and most reasonable people believe is its inconvenient location in Sunrise.


View Larger Map


Personally, I love NHL hockey -as has been stated here previously with my post on Les Habs, see the two links below- and exponentially prefer it to the NBA, but the best thing the Florida Panthers could do for all concerned is move to Kansas City after this season and end the pretense that they will ever be more than a largely-ignored novelty here in South Florida.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/in-which-florida-panthers-change-their.html

http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2007/07/john-edwards-model-behavior-on-cover-of.html

The number-one rule of politics and marketing is know your "universe."
In my opinion, the Panthers never learned that when it would've actually mattered, with completely with predictable results.

Below is the most recent list of myriad Panthers/Yormark/Sunrise Sports officials and lobbyists calling upon Broward County Commissioners, though given the apparent limitations of the county's website, and the all-too-obvious spelling mistakes, I'm sure there are likely more: http://webapps.broward.org/Lobbyist/VisitorContactList.aspx

I've re-arranged the info below to make it more legible as the columns on the county's website played havoc with the blog.

Michael Yormark

Principal/Employer: Sunrise Sports & Entertainment Center
Client:

Meeting-Other - provide specific detail
Improvements at Sunrise Sports Complex
Visited Comm. Kristin D. Jacobs on 10/13/2011 at 4:18 PM

William D. Rubin
Principal/Employer: The RubinGroup, Inc.
Client: Sunrise Sports & Entertainment

Meeting-Other Improvements at Sunrise Sorts Center
Visited Comm. Kristin D. Jacobs on 10/13/2011 at 4:17 PM

Heather L. Turnbull
Principal/Employer:The Rubin Group, Inc.
Client: Sunrise Sports & Entertainment

Meeting-Other Sunrise Sports stadium improvements and meetings with staff
Visited Comm. Kristin D. Jacobs on 10/13/2011 at 3:37 PM

John M. Milledge
Principal/Employer: John M. Milledge PA
Client: Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, LLP
Meeting -Other - provide specific detail
Improvements to the Sunrise arena
Visited Comm. Ilene Lieberman on 09/06/2011 at 3:21 PM

Here's the information on Agenda item #31 as it currently appears on the county's website:

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DEPARTMENT
	31.				MOTION TO DISCUSS capital improvement project funding request from the Arena Operating Company (AOC) in the amount of $7.7 million.
Attachments
	Exhibit 1 - Blended AOC Pro-Forma
	Exhibit 2 - Letter Dated October 27, 2011 from Sunrise Sports & Entertainment
	Exhibit 3 - Arena Payments through 2016 (Excluding New Request)

Below is 99% of the the original email I sent to Comm. Sue Gunzburger and Comm. Barbara Sharief, both of whom represent Hallandale Beach on the commission, and which I later sent Comm. Chip LaMarca as well.

Much as I'd like to, I can't provide links to the Bob Norman segments on Channel 10 involving the Florida Panthers owners that I reference below, who continue their attempts to get their hands on Broward taxpayer's money, because the TV station is currently re-doing their website and the story links I have aren't working.

(Wonder if they'll lose the archives of stories he's done since he moved over there from the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes?)

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Friday June 17th, 2011

Dear Commissioners Gunzburger and Sharief:

As I suspect you both recall from my previous conversations and emails with you both, I'm a big sports fan, always have been, but personally, I'm completely against this proposed BankAtlantic Center bailout -regardless of what the Panthers officials might prefer to call it- as long as Broward County taxpayers are paying more than 60% of the total costs involved.

They NEED to do more of the heavy-lifting.

Given that this snake-bit, poorly-run organization has already received a loan from the county, which hasn't been paid back in full yet, it seems an especially ill-conceived idea to me for them to expect the public to buy-in to the abstract idea of making the product better, esp. when the ultimate product is wins and losses (and excitement) on the ice, something which the Panthers have been woeful at demonstrating to the public for well over ten years.

Especially when they haven't tried to engage the public first in a meaningful way BEFORE coming to speak to you all about it.

Talk about the cart before the horse...

That's a real disconnect for me!

I saw the Channel 10 interview by Bob Norman earlier this afternoon, having missed it when it first aired, and think he framed the narrative quite fairly and accurately.

That the Panthers refused the opportunity to say anything to him about the story, even if just another self-serving bit of tripe, only makes them look more confused and desperate, and makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better for everyone if they didn't just move to Kansas City.

http://www.local10.com/video/28238536/index.html

As it happens, as both a sports fan and a Broward taxpayer, per the LA Times story below from this morning, if the LA Coliseum Comm. can turn down USC, with all their history, I definitely think you all can turn down the Florida Panthers if they aren't willing to pay 60% of the renovation costs at the arena.

Growing-up in NMB, I always planned on attending USC, and didn't finally decide to go to IU until I received my financial aid package statement back from LA -I was devastated...

I mention this tidbit only as a way of mentioning to you that despite the ubiquity of you all usually seeing me wearing this cap whenever we've run into each other and spoken somewhere in the county,

it well could've been this instead.

It's the difference between calling red 'crimson' and calling it "cardinal' and

calling Home Sweet Home, Bloomington or Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times

L.A. Coliseum officials tell USC they can't afford $60 million in renovations

The Coliseum Commission can't keep its promise to USC to make $60 million in renovations at the aging stadium. The university has several options under its contract.

June 17, 2011

Read the article at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-coliseum-20110617,0,3529615.story

Florida CFO Jeff Atwater: 'Taj Mahal' courthouse in Tallahassee 'far worse' than a pricey building. And the judges behind it WON'T talk!

Back in October, TheSunshineStateNews did this interview with then-CFO candidate Jeff Atwater on the subject of the 'Taj Mahal' Courthouse in Tallahassee, who asked why Alex Sink, then the Florida CFO and Democratic nominee for governor, didn't raise red flags about its costs and instead just signed the checks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x16WC96yqqg

See also: http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/ and
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSunshineStateNews

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Following-up on her excellent reporting of three weeks ago on the new First District Court of Appeals Courthouse in Tallahassee -Florida's state capital for those of you reading this post overseas- which I commented upon here in a December 19th post I titled, with mock humor, Lucy Morgan in St. Pete Times: Why can't anyone remember how a $50-million courthouse now called the 'Taj Mahal' stayed off the radar and got okayed?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/lucy-morgan-in-st-pete-times-why-cant.html on Saturday, Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times actually outdid her earlier piece.

She gave readers and observers of all things political in Florida, the shady and the legit, a real bracing wake-up call by giving us a knowing description of what's what in the new Home Sweet Home for the elite judicial set. About the only thing missing are duvets, a private wine cellar and Swedish au pairs to help their kids after school with homework, otherwise, it's all there.

More comments after the article.
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St. Petersburg Times
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/article1144297.ece

Atwater: Taj Mahal courthouse 'far worse' than a pricey building

By Lucy Morgan, Times Senior Correspondent
In Print: Saturday, January 8, 2011

TALLAHASSEE — State auditors are questioning more than $1 million in bills submitted for the new $50 million courthouse built by the 1st District Court of Appeal.

"This is one of the great embarrassments for Florida government,'' new Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said of the building derided as Florida's Taj Mahal. "The audacity and arrogance that was displayed in doing this and their continuing effort to hide the ball has been a complete disservice to hardworking Floridians who deserve better from public officials.''

The day after Atwater was sworn into office this week, he was briefed by auditors who now work for him. He said he will personally inspect every outstanding bill and will allow no payment until he can determine what was purchased. His auditors are continuing an investigation that started under former CFO Alex Sink.

"I now believe it is far worse than just an expensive building,'' Atwater said.

Some of Atwater's questions surround apparent attempts by the court to buy big screen television sets and furnishings for the courthouse with the proceeds of a $33.5 million bond issue that taxpayers will repay over the next 30 years.

"I cannot imagine financing equipment for 30 years that will depreciate over the next three to five years,'' Atwater said.

A former Senate president, Atwater said he has completely lost confidence in the Department of Management Services, the state agency responsible for overseeing construction of the courthouse. Officials at DMS signed off on the questionable purchases the judges requested.

"I do not believe they (DMS) have been straight with the people of Florida, certainly not with our department,'' he said. "They have been disguising what they were trying to get us to sign off on — and I have only been here a day.''

In October the CFO's scathing audit of the project accused the judges of illegally taking control of planning and construction away from DMS and laid much of the blame on the lobbying of 1st DCA Judges Paul M. Hawkes and Brad Thomas.

Auditors are now questioning a number of bills submitted by DMS for Peter R. Brown Construction Co. and Black Box Network Services, the company providing telecommunications equipment to the court. Black Box billed the state $693,450 for services and electronics equipment but has yet to collect $571,105 due to questions raised by auditors.

A $113,450 bill approved by DMS Nov. 29 lists a series of change orders for Black Box installations with charges for "labor'' without details. One of the items listed as labor is for $58,699.01. That is exactly the amount listed on a Sept. 7 bill for 14 TV sets and a $17,364 "restocking fee'' for the return of 16 60-inch TVs.

The St. Petersburg Times obtained the September bill in a records request from DMS, but officials in Atwater's office say they have never seen the September bill and believe the more recent bill that listed the TVs as "labor'' was an attempt to hide what had been purchased.

When the Times asked for bills DMS paid for electronics or furnishings, DMS initially denied any such payments had been made. But when pressed to provide bills submitted by Black Box, the agency produced a copy of the September bill.

The judges originally planned to put a 60-inch flat screen in each of 16 judges' chambers but apparently returned the televisions after the Times reported in August on the courthouse's many luxuries. Auditors are also questioning the legality of the restocking fee Black Box requested.

Auditors say they can't immediately determine how many televisions the court is attempting to buy. They sent an inspector out to count after getting a bill for nine. The inspector found the nine sets, plus two more still in boxes. The court was paying $5,978 for each 60-inch television, $2,273 for 47-inch televisions and $3,325 for 52-inch televisions, far more than the price of similar-sized TVs at major electronic stores.

Internal memos indicate auditors could not determine what was being purchased in one December bill for $145,000. When they asked for additional documentation they discovered that $41,000 of the total was for the nine TVs.

Officials at DMS did not respond to detailed requests for comment on Friday.

First DCA marshal Stephen Nevels says the court has 27 televisions in the new building: nine 60-inch monitors; two 52-inch; seven 46-inch; three 42-inch; two 40-inch; and four 17-inch. Nevels said the court has not seen any of the bills that have been handled by DMS.

Atwater is trying to unravel other questionable expenditures. One involves the purchase of art for the new building, and vendors that DMS and the court authorized to provide services that exceed the $100,000 limit on art that state law says can be purchased for a new building.

One of those vendors is Signature Art Gallery, owned by Mary Maida, wife of Tallahassee lawyer Tom Maida. The gallery agreed to frame 400 historical photos in the new building at a cost of more than $357,000, money that was to be paid by construction manager Peter R. Brown. In addition the court has agreed to pay $72,000 for original paintings by seven Florida artists.

The framed photographs include scenes from the 32 counties in Florida's northern district: greased pig contests, tobacco farms, lighthouses, cotton pickers, Tarzan at Wakulla Springs and other historic scenes.

Auditors have refused to approve payment of the bill because it exceeds the $100,000 limit. Some at the court have argued that the photos are not art and should not be included in the amount state law allows for art when a new building is built.

The situation leaves Mrs. Maida, owner of a small gallery in northeast Tallahassee, with a huge unpaid bill. Her husband, a lawyer at Foley & Lardner, has written to lawyers in Atwater's office asking for copies of all records relating to the art.

He has not filed a lawsuit. "I hope we don't have to,'' Tom Maida said when asked about the debt. "We certainly believe she is entitled to be paid by the state.''

It will be up to Atwater to decide. He's trying to determine what the state should do where a vendor has entered into a contract in good faith expecting to be paid for work — but that work violates state law.

Meanwhile Hawkes, chief judge during much of the construction project, and other officials involved in the project have been asked to appear before a Senate budget committee Wednesday to answer questions about the new courthouse. Thomas, the other judge who helped lobby for the project, also was invited. On Friday he notified the committee he will not appear.

"He had no problem coming to lobby for a $50 million courthouse, but now he can't come back to answer questions,'' said committee Chairman Mike Fasano.

Thomas did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

Lawmakers approved the money for the project and passed a $33.5 million bond issue that was tucked into an unrelated transportation bill on the last day of the 2007 legislative session. They say they had no idea the judges planned to build such an elaborate building.

The 110,000-square-foot building houses the 1st District's 114 employees. Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady is working on plans to remodel part of the building to accommodate 50 to 60 state court administrative employees, who could move out of rented quarters and save the state about $300,000 a year.

Atwater said he cannot allow the problems with the new building to go unaddressed. "There are people at DMS who tried to stop this, at least tried to bring a level of thoughtful scrutiny to it and it may have cost them their jobs,'' he said.

"We should be championing those people.''

Lucy Morgan can be reached at lmorgan@sptimes.com.

No discount

Though the state was buying in quantity, newly released numbers show taxpayers did not get a break in buying electronics for the Taj Mahal courthouse.

$5,978 Price per 60-inch TV

$3,325 Price per 52-inch TV

$2,273 Price per 47-inch TV

$17,364 "Restocking fee'' for state to return of 16 60-inch TVs, more than $1,000 apiece

$357,000 Cost to frame some 400 historical photos, about $890 each

Source: Office of Chief Financial Officer

Reader comments at:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/article1144297.ece#comments

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So, three weeks later. the lap of luxury in Tallahassee paid for by Florida taxpayers begins to get described in detail...

I can only imagine what a proposed new Broward County Courthouse -forced down the throats of protesting taxpayers- would be like with all the prima donna judges in this area.

That proposed County courthouse, adamantly opposed by the vast majority of Broward County's citizen taxpayers, but popular with the small clique of downtown Fort Lauderdale's business, legal and lobbying community, for reason that should be obvious, is an explosive subject I've written about many times, even while the Miami Herald has been positively obsequious and sycophantic in their news coverage, practically serving as a stenographer for the proponents of the plan.

See Commission Forgets People, Goes With Courthouse By Bob Norman, Tue., Feb. 2 2010 @ 6:20PM http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/02/broward_county_courthouse.php

That great post, includes this gem:

Last year, Ritter created her own hand-picked "Broward County Courthouse Task Force" and installed her friend and fellow courthouse backer, Commissioner Ilene Lieberman, as the chairwoman.

Not surprisingly, the task force just came back with exactly what Ritter and Lieberman wanted: a recommendation to build a new courthouse without asking the permission of the public. The task force report also includes a convoluted half-baked plan to pay for it.

And Ritter and Lieberman are real cocky about it too, treating it all as a done deal. But you have to understand that Lieberman might have more than altruistic motives to rush this project forward. In 2005, she and lawyer husband Stuart Michelson, who serves as the Sunrise city attorney, bought an office suite close to the courthouse (at 800 SE Third Avenue) for $1.35 million.

Wow!

I've discussed here how the so-called 'Courthouse Task Force' was intentionally stacked with supporters of the plan, not well-respected, open-minded community reps with no personal or professional conflicts.
No, that would have been too easy!

Instead, people selected for it had personal agendas from the beginning, and some even stood to profit from it in a manner that would not be ethically or legally acceptable with a similar proposal for any other building in this county.

In fact, the task force DIDN'T even follow the county's own rules and provide public information about their public meetings prior to them taking place, as the last meeting's agenda and related information were NOT posted to the county's website until many hours AFTER it was over.

Oversight or intentional?

In my letter to Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry complaining about these violations, I made the case for intentional by simply reciting the known facts, which were overwhelming.

And in case you forgot, the chair of that Broward County Courthouse Task Force, appointed by the Broward County Commission itself, was none other than Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman, a woman who owns property near the proposed site in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Really.

Here are HBB links to past posts of mine on her ethics as well as this subject:

http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=7001629133953783160&searchType=ALL&txtKeywords=&label=Ilene+Lieberman

http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=7001629133953783160&searchType=ALL&txtKeywords=&label=Broward+Courthouse+Taskforce

http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=7001629133953783160&searchType=ALL&txtKeywords=&label=Broward+County+Courthouse+Taskforce

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that's how things are DONE in Broward County, Florida, U.S.A. in the early years of the 21st century.
In broad daylight.

The mind literally reels at the excess just waiting for Broward taxpayers if a new county courthouse is built in the location favored by the powerful few and well-connected, who are mostly Secret Santas for each other, even if they don't personally celebrate Christmas.

What are friends for?

IF there ever is a brand-new courthouse in Broward, it needs to be on/near or adjacent to U.S.-1 so that a future FEC rail line commuter train station is close-by, and logic and reason actually enter the public planning conversation for a change.
http://www.sfeccstudy.com/

If you aren't going to consciously locate venues that attract lots of foot traffic, like stadiums, arenas, shopping malls, govt. buildings like county courthouses or county HQ, near safe and well-designed mass transportation hubs to cut down on the number of vehicles on the roads, and create some positive business synergy and efficiency -and make everyone's life simpler while saving money on parking fees- what's the point in pretending there's any kind of logical, well thought- out County/regional transportation policy?

I don't know about you, but personally, I'm tired of pretending that myopic mediocrity in South Florida government planning is satisfactory.

The only way to kill the real estate developer monsters in Florida is to drive a stake thru their hearts, er, wallets -Yes on Amendment 4. It's true!

Coming so quickly after my August blog posts comparing Broward Comm. Ilene Lieberman's efforts to already weaken the brand-new Broward County ethics rules to any number of famous hard-to-kill monsters that starred in classic Hammer Films, honored last year by the Royal Mail with stamps -Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Mummy- I feel a small amount of gratification.
Perhaps those posts of mine found an unintended audience, and helped contribute a kernel to the idea below.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Ilene%20Lieberman
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=32300674&mediaId=76000716




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXuFEAx0eK4

http://www.youtube.com/user/FloridaHometown


Latest Amendment 4/FHD news stories at http://floridahometowndemocracy.com/news

Why the lies about Florida Hometown Democracy? blog

http://floridahometowndemocracyamendment.blogspot.com/


http://floridahometowndemocracy.com/


http://floridahometowndemocracy.com/blog

Reminder: Amendment 4 Informational Forum in Hollywood on Wednesday, October 13th, from 7-9 p.m. at the Hillcrest Playdium, 1100 Hillcrest Drive, Hollywood, FL. Free parking

See my post from last week on this meeting with lots of information on participants at:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/forum-in-hollywood-on-amendment-4.html

While Russia tries to stop govt. corruption, Broward Comm. Ilene Lieberman wants to water down the new Ethics rules. Shocker!

Below, some facinating comments by Russia Today correspondent Jacob Greaves informing the Prime Time Russia studio crew in Moscow about the Duma capping ALL govt. officials and civil servants personal spending at 120% of total income to prevent corruption.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's government wants to go after the "big fish" to make examples out of them, before going after the minnows, and towards that end, using power he was given earlier this year, sacked a high-ranking general at the Ministry of Defense for failing to comply with the income declaration requirements.

You might recall that old chestnut about actions having consequences. Well, in most of the world, even in Russia, that still remains true, for both good and ill.

Meanwhile, here in Broward County, some "people" already in a position of power want to start nibbling away at the new County Ethics rules so that they can play belle-of-the-ball.

And by some "people" I specifically mean Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman, whom we have discussed previously in this space 'till we're blue in the face for her brazen oleaginous ways.

Lieberman has proven herself to be no friend of genuine reform in this county, nor of meaningful ethics legislation with predictable dire consequences for contemptuous offenders -like that general in Russia- or even financial accountability or prescience, and the sooner she is gone from the passing scene in Broward, the better your future suddenly becomes.

If Lieberman really were the redoubtable legal eagle she imagines herself to be, echoed by so many pliant sycophants in the South Florida press, she'd have long since run for judge.
She hasn't.

Instead, she has remained and participated up to her elbows in the county's tarnished way of transacting business with a wink, a nod and a campaign check from lobbyists.
She has proven to be a mere puppet-master, not a voice that made a positive tangible difference for Broward's citizen taxpayers.
It's too late for her.

Even here, as bad as things are and have been, they DON'T actually build statues to people like her, since it would necessarily have to include the caption, "friend to the lobbyists, thru thick and thin."
No doubt the pigeons would have great fun with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RX2sgsiizo



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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Broward's new Code of Ethics might get its first amendment soon

By Brittany Wallman
September 29, 2010 08:00 AM

Commissioner Ilene Lieberman wants her colleagues to soften the gift ban in the new ethics code.

Broward commissioners argued Tuesday and then postponed making a decision on whether to do it. It would be the first change of any kind to the brand new Code of Ethics.

The new ethics code says commissioners cannot accept a gift from a lobbyist or a vendor who does business with the county. It also says that commissioners can take a gift from someone else, but only if it's not worth more than $50. Lieberman is president of the Florida Association of Counties, and argues that she should be able to accept food, travel and lodging from that organization when she goes to its events and conferences.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/09/browards_new_code_of_ethics_to_1.html

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Prime Time Russia — the first TV show for an English-speaking audience in Russia. Weekdays from 8-9 p.m. msk on RT (Russia Today) channel and online
at http://rt.com/prime-time.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/primetimeru